KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — During a visit to a crowded hospital in the southern province of Kandahar, Tom Fletcher, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, warned that severe cuts to humanitarian funding are already resulting in loss of life across Afghanistan.
Speaking at the facility, Fletcher said over 400 medical centers in the region have been forced to close in recent months due to funding shortfalls, cutting off primary healthcare access for more than 3 million people. “I challenge anyone making these decisions to come and visit a hospital like this one,” he said. “The impact of aid cuts is that millions die.”
Fletcher described grim scenes inside the hospital: patients sharing beds, newborns lacking essential care, and overwhelmed doctors forced to choose “which lives to save and which lives not to save.” He also noted that female health workers — essential to Afghanistan’s fragile medical infrastructure — are seeing their salaries slashed by up to two-thirds.
“This is real,” Fletcher said. “And I can’t sugar this pill.”
The UN official’s visit comes as international donor fatigue and shifting global priorities have left Afghanistan’s humanitarian response critically underfunded, despite more than half of the population — approximately 23 million people — needing urgent assistance this year.
Fletcher said he had also held a two-hour meeting with Mullah Shirin, Taliban governor for Kandahar, who is a close aide to the Taliban reclusive leader.
